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BUICK OPEN


August 4, 2006


Bo Van Pelt


GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Bo Van Pelt after a 6 under 66 today, really a 5 under 67 since you played 33 holes today. You're sitting at 11 under for two rounds at the 2006 Buick Open. Talk about your great day today. 11 under par today.

BO VAN PELT: Yes, I played really solid today. I made three pars yesterday and was in the fairway on 13. I just hit a bunch fairways and greens. The golf course was pretty much in front of me all day. I didn't hit it behind any trees, didn't short side myself. Just played safe and steady all day. I don't think I missed more than maybe one green in the first round. That keeps your blood pressure pretty low out there. I was able to hit some good iron shots on the par 3s and was able to take advantage of those. All in all, any time you go no bogeys for 36 holes, you're pretty happy.

TODD BUDNICK: You're having a very steady year this year. This will be your 18th cut out of 21 starts and kind of breaking a mini slump. You missed the last two cuts coming in.

BO VAN PELT: You know, I took a month off after the U.S. Open, the first time I had done that in my career. I just wanted to spend time with my family. We're going to have a baby here in about three weeks. I wasn't really prepared going over to the British Open as much as I'd like to have been. I think that carried over to Milwaukee. I wasn't even going to play this week. I was planning on going home.

I was real disappointed how I played last week. I talked to my wife and she said you better stay. I did an outing on Monday and flew over here Monday night and just wanted to play good before I took another week off.

TODD BUDNICK: We'll take some questions.

Q. There was a time like 20, 30, 40 years ago where golf was kind of thought of as the shorter man's game, Hogan, Nicklaus, they were all under six feet. Looking at the TOUR now, someone like you, Tiger, Vijay, Ernie, Phil, some of the best players in the world are like six two, six three. Talk about maybe the evolution of the game.

BO VAN PELT: Well, I think if you go back 20, 30 years ago, guys in high school just played the three major sports, baseball, football, basketball. Golf was really a fringe sport for guys who didn't play that. And there wasn't a hole lot of opportunities to play golf. It wasn't as big of a deal as it is now.

I think as golf progressed, as Tiger came along, you know, as it got tougher to go to college and play big high school sports and college sports, it got tougher to get scholarships. I think more guys decided to try to go play golf. It moved more into the forefront. I think that being said, there was athletes, guys that might have just played basketball or football 30 years ago said, hey, I'm going to try golf.

I think fathers started spending more time and taking their kids out to the golf course and dragging them around. And I think 30 years ago that was an adult thing to do. And I think the head pros, guys who are PGA pros are developing more junior programs for kids on Saturday mornings and more summertime programs. And I think the cumulative effect of that is there's more people playing, so bigger people playing and probably better athletes.

Q. If you're taller you have got more moving parts and it's tougher to hit a golf ball. Obviously the best players in the world are 50 yards past the average player. Is that negated maybe? It is harder hitting a ball being six three as opposed to five eight?

BO VAN PELT: No, I think the mechanics are the same. And I think that as golf instruction, you know, you've all they started to realize that if your hands are up here, you're probably going to get more club speed than someone down here. It's easier to hit it out of the rough, I think, you've got a more upright swing. Guys like Vijay, Ernie, Tiger, it's easier for them to come straight down on the ball and get the ball out of the rough, easier for them to generate club head speed.

I think instruction kind of realized that was a myth. That's what I think.

Q. (No microphone.)

BO VAN PELT: It's been equal. We got to 12 and I looked over and I saw there were two groups waiting on the tee. We all took a little extra time on 12. That way we wouldn't be standing there too long. It's just one of those things, the way the wind was, with 12 being a short par 4, 13 being reachable, and 14 being drivable, you can't help but have a backup there.

Q. Just talk about how physically taxing it is to play basically two rounds of golf in a day. I imagine it's as much mentally taxing being a PGA event and the focus you need to play at this level?

BO VAN PELT: You have to pace yourself. When you get going good, you don't try to get too excited, don't try to get too down if you hit a bad shot.

We were laughing about it coming up 18. We were saying the bed is going to feel pretty good tonight. We actually caught a break. It could have been 20 degrees warmer. Luckily when the storm came through the back side of it, it was cool air. Because if we would have had to play in the heat that we played on Wednesday today, it would have been tough, a lot tougher than it was.

I think we were so used to playing in the heat last week and early on this week, even though you had to go 33 holes, it wasn't as taxing as it could have been.

Q. How often do you hit every green?

BO VAN PELT: Not very. You think you're going to miss one or hit one over. That was one of my better sets, hitting greens in regulation. I'm hitting it good. You know, we were talking really well between my caddie and I today and we picked a lot of good clubs. It helped because I was in the fairway almost all the time, too, I wasn't hardly in the rough.

When your ball is clean, it's sitting up on a nice lie, you usually shouldn't short side yourself too much. There's really no excuse for it.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go over your birdies. Birdie on 1.

BO VAN PELT: I hit a driver and I hit a 5 wood in the front bunker, hit it out to five feet and made that.

3, I hit 5 iron. I hit it about 12 feet below the hole, just short, pretty straight up the gut.

5, I hit driver and I hit a 9 iron about ten feet past the hole, made a little right to left there.

8, par 3, I hit 6 iron about ten feet past the hole. It was almost dead straight. I had a dead straight putt down the hill.

14, I drove it two inches from the front edge of the green and 2 putted from, I don't know, 25 feet, 30 feet.

17, hit a 6 iron about ten feet below the hole and it was dead straight up the gut, up the hill, really easy putt.

TODD BUDNICK: Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts.
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